American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2012 – The Defense Department is taking a stand against sexual assault in the military in an effort to maintain the well-being of U.S. service members and their families. This American Forces Press Service special report offers resources dedicated to preventing and appropriately responding to this crime, http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2012/0912_sexual-assault/.
|
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Special Report: Sexual Assault Prevention and Response
VA, DOD to Fund $100 Million PTSD and TBI Study
From a Department of Veterans Affairs News Release
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2012 – The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense today announced they are investing more than $100 million in research to improve diagnosis and treatment of mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.
“At VA, ensuring that our veterans receive quality care is our highest priority,” Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said. “Investing in innovative research that will lead to treatments for PTSD and TBI is critical to providing the care our veterans have earned and deserve.”
The two groups, The Consortium to Alleviate PTSD and the Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium will be jointly managed by VA, and by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, on behalf of the DOD.
More than 15 percent of service members and veterans suffer impaired functioning as a result of PTSD. CAP will study potential indicators of the trauma, as well as prevention strategies, possible interventions, and improved treatments. Biomarker-based research will be a key factor for CAP’s studies.
A primary goal of CENC is to establish an understanding of the after-effects of an mTBI. Potential comorbidities also will be studied; that is, conditions associated with and worsen because of a neurotrauma.
“PTSD and mTBI are two of the most-prevalent injuries suffered by our warfighters in Iraq and Afghanistan, and identifying better treatments for those impacted is critical,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Jonathan Woodson said. “These consortia will bring together leading scientists and researchers devoted to the health and welfare of our nation’s service members and veterans.”
On Aug. 31, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to improve access to mental health services for veterans, service members and military families. As part of that executive order, Obama directed DOD, the VA, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education to develop a National Research Action Plan that will include strategies to improve early diagnosis and treatment effectiveness for TBI and PTSD. He further directed DOD and HHS to conduct a comprehensive mental health study, with an emphasis on PTSD, TBI, and related injuries to develop better prevention, diagnosis, and treatment options.
VA, which has the largest integrated health care system in the country, also has one of the largest medical research programs.
This year, approximately 3,400 researchers will work on more than 2,300 projects with nearly $1.9 billion in funding. Specific information on the consortia, including the full description of each award, eligibility, and submission deadlines, and general application instructions, are posted on the Grants.gov and CDMRP websites.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Helping Female Veterans with Nowhere to Turn
By Alanna Durkin - Medill News Service
In August 2005, Army Lt. Jas Boothe had one thing on her mind: getting herself - and the son she was raising on her own - ready for her deployment to Iraq.
But a phone call and a doctor’s visit a few weeks later changed everything. Boothe, who was 28 at the time, learned her home had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Soon after that, she was diagnosed with cancer in her head, neck and throat.
“So, now there is no deployment, there is no home and now I’m facing losing my military career, which is how I take care of my child,” she said in a recent interview.
She began to research housing options. The Veterans Affairs Department referred her to social services, where she was told she qualified for welfare and food stamps.
“There were a ton of services, housing facilities for men, but someone had forgotten about the women,” she said. “Our sacrifice was not equated to that of the males’ sacrifice, and that was shown in the level of services that we didn’t have.”
After 30 radiation treatments and two surgeries, the military cleared Boothe for duty. Now a captain in the Army National Guard, she was able to stay in the military, afford a home and support her son. But her experience taught her that there were likely other women veterans with nowhere to turn.
It is impossible to determine the exact number of female veterans who are homeless, according to a 2011 Government Accountability Office report. But one indicator is the number of female veterans who seek VA services, which doubled from 1,380 in 2006 to 3,328 in 2010.
VA has made it a goal to end veteran homelessness by 2015. An estimated 67,495 veterans were homeless on a single night in January 2011, a 12 percent drop from the year before, according to VA.
But the number is expected to grow as more service members return from Afghanistan over the next two years.
A LACK OF OPTIONS
VA has developed many programs to combat homelessness among veterans. The Grant and Per Diem Program provides funding to community groups that offer veteran services and housing, and the Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supported Housing Program gives veterans vouchers for housing.
Yet these programs have significant limitations and problems when it comes to serving women, according to the GAO report.
The GAO found that more than 60 percent of the GPD housing for women either does not allow children or limits the number or ages of children accepted. Housing and service providers are also not compensated for the cost of housing children, creating a financial disincentive to accept families, according to the report.
The report also pointed to instances of unsafe living conditions for women and their families. “Nine of the 142 GPD programs we surveyed indicated that there had been reported incidents of sexual harassment or assault on women residents in the past 5 years,” wrote Daniel Bertoni, GAO’s director of education, work force and income safety issues.
Many homeless female veterans are single mothers, leaving them with nowhere to go if they cannot find housing that also allows their children, said Boothe, who started Final Salute Inc. to give female veterans somewhere to go. She runs a six-bedroom transitional home in Fairfax, Va., for five women and two children.
VA declined comment for this story........ Read More Here
For Immediate Help, Resources & More Information Please Visit:
Have Things Improved? We Want to Hear From You! Sound Off: Housing Scarce for Homeless Female Veterans
| By Eric Tucker and Kristin M. Hall - The Associated Press Posted : Sunday Apr 8, 2012 16:27:20 EDT  |
| MANUEL BALCE CENETA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS:
Homeless veteran Misha Mclamb is seen in her transition home in Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington
|
WASHINGTON — Misha McLamb helped keep fighter jets flying during a military career that took her halfway around the world to the Persian Gulf. But back home, the Navy aircraft specialist is barely getting by after a series of blows that undid her settled life.
She was laid off from work last year and lost custody of her daughter. She’s grappled with alcohol abuse, a carry-over from heavy-drinking Navy days. She spent nights in her car before a friend’s boyfriend wrecked it, moving later to a homeless shelter where the insulin needles she needs for her diabetes were stolen. She now lives in transitional housing for homeless veterans — except the government recently advised occupants to leave because of unsafe building conditions.
“I wasn’t a loser,” McLamb, 32, says. “Everybody who’s homeless doesn’t necessarily have to have something very mentally wrong with them. Some people just have bad circumstances with no resources.”
Once primarily problems for male veterans, homelessness and economic struggles are escalating among female veterans, whose numbers have grown during the past decade of U.S. wars while resources for them haven’t kept up. The population of female veterans without permanent shelter has more than doubled in the last half-dozen years and may continue climbing now that the Iraq war has ended, sending women home with the same stresses as their male counterparts — plus some gender-specific ones that make them more susceptible to homelessness.
The problem, a hurdle to the Obama administration’s stated goal of ending veterans’ homelessness by 2015, is exacerbated by a shortage of temporary housing specifically designed to be safe and welcoming to women or mothers with children. The spike comes even as the overall homeless veteran population has dropped by 12 percent in the last two years to about 67,500, officials say.
“It can’t get any worse,” McLamb says matter-of-factly, “’Cause I’ve already been through hell.”
Veterans’ homelessness, the subject of a March congressional hearing, has received fresh attention amid government reports documenting the numbers and identifying widespread flaws in buildings that shelter veterans......
DoD to Host Caregivers Conference in 2013
By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 14, 2012 7:16:24 EDT
Posted : Friday Sep 14, 2012 7:16:24 EDT
The Defense Department will hold a conference next year to discuss issues facing military caregivers, a senior defense official announced Thursday.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Warrior Care Policy John Campbell said the Pentagon will bring together Defense Department caregiver program personnel, military and veteran service organizations, the private sector, and caregivers — spouses, parents, family or friends who help a service member following an illness or injury — to address the caregiver community’s needs.
Campbell made the announcement during the 2012 Warrior and Family Symposium sponsored by the Military Officers Association of American and the National Defense Industrial Association.
“I’ve been worried and concerned for a while about caregivers … the sisters, the brothers, the spouses, who really need our support,” Campbell said.
His remarks came after Annette Slaydon, the wife of a seriously injured Air Force explosive ordnance technician, told an audience of her husband’s struggles with his family, which doesn’t understand his post-traumatic stress disorder and recovery, and their marriage, left in shambles by their changed relationship.
“There’s no instruction booklet on how you move forward. There’s nothing that talks about how your relationship changes from that of a husband and wife to that of a patient and caregiver … and you wake up one morning and you wonder how it happened,” Slaydon said.
More than 49,000 service members have received physical wounds in Iraq or Afghanistan and as many as 300,000 may have personality changes related to multiple concussions or mental health issues such as combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.
During recovery, which often takes months or years — and for some, a lifetime — troops and veterans often rely on family members or friends to assist with tasks ranging from basic needs, such as bathing and feeding, to activities like managing their finances, coordinating medical appointments, securing jobs and regaining independence.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)